Friday, July 07, 2006

Trust Jobs to keep one guessing. The latest news is that the man at the helm of affairs is going to launch a movie download service on the iPod. Yes, that means that perhaps by the end of this year, from Tom Cruise’s gun totting action, to Catherine Zeta Jones’ alluring oomph, the little few inches worth of screen on the new iPod could be witness to momentous history in the making. But the issues facing Steve Jobs’ download proposal go much beyond the visible.

The major ones being pricing and competition. Movielink, a leading movie download website with equity stakes of various production houses, offers downloads for around $20 to $30. Despite the initial euphoria, the site has got a dismal response because of the pricing, and some studios are actually reconsidering their stakes. But Steve Jobs is reportedly wishing to allow the download of all movies – whether old or new – for only $9.99 per movie! Then again, Hollywood production houses are miff ed with the idea, as at that price, they claim, making profits seems completely infeasible.